Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 20, 1989, edition 1 / Page 15
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DTHOmnibusThursday, April 20, 19893 Album Reviews - Dogs' new album features good-natured rock Cy DOUG ED.UDS Staff Writer Ths Dogs D'Amour in The DymmXeJstSs!oon China Records imagine a British version of the Georgia Satellites, or a less offen sive Guns N' Roses, or perhaps Hanoi Rocks with less glamour and more growL Now add a dash of the Cult and a touch of Jacobites, and that should give you a pretty good sense of the Dogs D'Amour. This four-man group is the latest in a long line of rock bands that manages to make great music while relying on little more than familiar three-chord progressions, standard riffs and average musi cianship. Their straightforward approach is part of what makes them so appealing, and listening to their U.S. debut LP. in The Dynam ite Jet Saloon, serves as a welcome reminder that rock tv roll in its most basic form is still alive and kicking. The opening track, "Debauchery," sets up the tone for the rest of the record with its heavy backbeat and loud refrain. When these blokes yell, "Gimme some debauchery," it doesnt sound like just a few more poseurs trying to be cool. Judging from the lyrics, one immediately gets the feeling that the band enjoys the seedy side of life, which includes trashy apartments full of unpaid bills and sex with "pussycats" in the back of downtown London Fantasy meets reality By RANDAL CULLOCK Staff writer Chimera - Our size Is All In Attentis Records The point at which reality meets fantasy Is a turbulent, noisy place. These two foes spar endlessly for their rightful share of each human brain, unfortunately, the outcome is too often the same as what results from the collision of mat ter and antimatter: a double handful of nothing. No one understands this better than Chimera, four Baylor Univer sity boys trying to establish a cease-fire between the war machine of the reality that sur rounds them and the freedom fighting fantasies that propel them through it. They seem to want to re-create the world and give the artists a chance to rule it, like any 70s heavy metal band, with the implicit understanding that power chords corrupt, and absolute power chords corrupt absolutely. The opening track, "Genesis Resartus," kicks this musical Bible for the 90s off like lan Curtids on his premiere American tour. As for the first-ever heavy metal song to sample rap classics and near- cabs. Its not hard to picture the guys on the front cover of the record as part of such a sordid scene, so the song doesnt come off as the trite bit of nonsense it might have been. Main songwriter and singer Tyla uses his "bourbon wrecked throat." as the jacket states, to great effect on "How come it Never Rains." a bitter lament about a love gone astray. Here and throughout the LP, bassist Steve James and drummer Bam lay down a solid groove for Tyla's rhythm guitar and Jo Dog's taste ful, bluesy licks. The last track on side one, "Medicine Man" stands out due to its great riff and propulsive beat, not to mention some of the more imaginative lyrics on the record (read this one aint about booze or women). Side two kicks off with the stomping good "Gonna Get It Right," another song about broken love in which the singer makes the observation, "God created woman, but the devil invented the blues." in a subtle follow-up to this line making reference to the star of the '50s film classic "And God Created woman," he says to the girl in the song. "Youte the best thing since Bridgette Bardot" So we see that Tyla has a sense of humor and apparently finds time to catch the odd foreign film in playing rock YV roll and drinking. "Everything I want" is a real rave-up that sounds equally good on a nice home stereo or coming classics T'My Adidas." "Rock the Bells," "Joe le Taxi"), "Genesis Resar tus" shows that Chimera Is acutely aware of the role art will play in the governance of this new post post-modem universe. Saying that Chimera is not all just Spandex and 70s guitar bra vado is the ultimate understate ment, it is obvious that lead guitarist Tom Waits spent many years practicing air guitar in front of a mirror before he ever tried to play the real thing. His fretwork, fast, furious yet exhibiting a remarkable degree of self-control, belies a superhuman sensitivity to the possibilities of vicarious, play-at-home guitar heroics. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Pussy Willow," a jazz-rap stomp rave-up about nothing less than man's inhumanity to man. Samples of Thetonious Monk and John Coltrane lend an air of authenticity to the mayhem, while a quick snippet of "Free to Be You and Me" adds a sobering perspective of universality to this vehicle for waits' instrumental genius. The soaring popularity of both metal and rap guarantees that this album will turn many heads. Distilling these two genres down i if j vk :- t Ml bq .0 -I ! x ' I r-i. j JL - -; r t.y? , L 1 r .... 1 1 -.,, .' Dogs D'Amour's album 'Dynamite Jet Saloon' features imaginative lyrics and good melodies out of a crummy car radio, it also contains one of the funniest lines on the album: "I used to give you chocolates, you use 'em in your actLooked so good, looked so fineGimme a cigarette." "Billy Two Rivers" breaks up the flow with its acoustic, two-part har mony approach, but the song works well as a bit of honky-tonk storytelling and contrasts nicely on 'Chimera' album and avoiding the posturing indi genous to both is just one of Chimera's talents, in their restruc tured autocracy, the representa tive centerpiece, encompassing virtually the entire history of music, is the mock symphony "Neanderthal Melodica," a paean to the evils of authoritarianism. Using Beethoven's Fifth as a cantus firmus, and overdubbing dozens of recognizable rock, reg gae, jazz and classical runs into the mix, Chimera creates a dizzying maelstrom of man's aural history. As a terrifying pastiche of all that has come before and as a brave, oracular statement of ail that will come in the future, "Neanderthal Melodica" stands as a testament to the scope of Chimera's vision. But regardless of their holistic view of the world of music, Chi mera's teased hair, make-up and leopard-skin Spandex keep them in touch with their roots. Knowing that no 70s guitar rock album is complete without at least one acoustic ballad, Chimera shows their mastery over their own genre while at the same time giving it the quarter turn that keeps them artistically significant. instead of the traditional boy-toses-glrt sentimentality found in most heavy metal ballads, Chimera with the rest of the material. Overall, the 10 songs on this record stand up well, none of them sounding like last-minute filler. In fact, since it's rather short in length, there's no reason why the LP shouldn't include the extra tracks found on the CD. Despite the fairly uniform verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structures, there are enough solid hooks and uses the mindless rivalry between college sports teams as metaphor for tove gone wrong in the touch ing, plaintive "Beat Rice Ballad." A closer examination of the relation ship between sports and love has never been made, and after one listens, you may never look at either one the same way again. Although not everything works on this ambitious concept album, there is enough raw talent and good ideas to make up for the times that their fantasy gets out of hand and forgets there is a reality to fight. Chimera's overt irrealism could be turned to com bat the all-top-real social problems that plague everyone but, hey, when it comes to affecting reality, art is a hammer, not a mirror, right? We could alt use the occa sional dose of raw fantasy. Creating a new music for man kind is a lofty goal and a tricky one as well. Chimera has managed to utilize the already vast expanse of Texas as a testing ground for their sun-baked idealism. A brand new history has been waiting in the wings for a long time now. If you are interested in the visions of Utopia or just hate everything that has happened in music since the dawn of time, you owe it to yourself to buy this album. good melodies to distinguish the songs from one another and from a lot of banal rock music being played tftese days. The Dogs D'Amour arent doing anything terribly original or impressive, but what they do they do damn well So if you're in the mood for some good-humored, ass-tiddn rock n' roll, take a trip to the Dynamite Jet Saloon with the Dogs D'Amour. " The family suggests v that memorial contributions be made to the American Heart Association When people want to honor a loved one and fight heart disease. THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION MEMORIAL PROGRAM WERE FIGHTING FOR OURUFE American Haart . y Association This spac provided as a public service.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 20, 1989, edition 1
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